Steel, Smile, and Silk
by Vizyne
Summary: Uchiha Mikoto wasn't the perfect housewife everyone thought she was.


Steel, Smile, and Silk

* * *

At the age of eight, Uchiha Mikoto awakened her Sharingan. She was running on the banks of the Naga River, slipped, and fell in. She emerged twenty minutes later with hair plastered to her face, river water intermingling with blood from her wounds, and spinning eyes of red and black.

Later, when asked what had happened, she merely shrugged and mumbled something about tripping. She had seen the more talented and "lucky" of her clansmen disappear, only to return broken and empty-eyed, all in the service of Konoha and her Will of Fire.

With steel in her heart and a smile to mask her face, Uchiha Mikoto vowed never to let that happen to her.

She stayed away from the Naka River after that, though.

* * *

At the age of twelve, the year of her graduation from Konoha Academy, Uchiha Mikoto met Uzumaki Kushina, brash and loud-mouthed, and a complete opposite of her. Within a week, they became best friends. (Accounts to how this occurred included a bucket of paint, five bags of flour, a great deal of frogs, and a very confused Namikaze Minato).

With steel in her heart and a smile on her face, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to keep her friend safe.

She would fail.

* * *

At the age of thirteen, Uchiha Mikoto discovered the wonders of genjutsu. It was quiet, unnoticed, and perfect for her. She used it to great effect in the Chunin Exams, slipping her teammates the answers to the written exam questions, confounding the enemy teams while letting her own sneak quietly by, and ultimately leaving her opponent in the final stage a slack-mouthed statue as she placed her kunai ever-so-delicately against his throat.

The crowds roared and cheered, her team grinned and congratulated her, and above all of them, the Hokage locked onto her eyes and, almost imperceptibly, nodded his head.

With steel in her heart and a smile held on her face, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to keep training until she was the best.

This would never happen.

* * *

At the age of fifteen, Uchiha Mikoto became the youngest jounin of her generation. At her party, Kushina celebrated the loudest and hugged her the hardest. One year later, Mikoto did the same for her.

With steel in her heart and a smile stretched across her face, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to believe.

Though she almost broke it several times, her vow remained fractured, but intact.

At the age of eighteen, on the eve of her birthday, Uchiha Mikoto learned that she would be expected to abandon her aspirations for a betrothal to Uchiha Fugaku, the clan heir. Despite her protestations and refusals, in the end, she lost. The next day, she handed in her resignation papers and tore up her ANBU application form. A month later, she was married.

With steel in her heart, a smile frozen on her face, and silk draped over her body, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to pledge herself to a man she hardly knew and a clan she began to hate.

* * *

At the age of twenty-two, Uchiha Mikoto gave birth to her first child, Itachi. He was strange child, never crying, and always peering around with a solemn, inquisitive look in his eyes. Quite quickly, it became evident he was a prodigy when, at the age of three, he was reading jounin-level textbooks and hitting the center of the target without looking.

The clan talked amongst themselves in excitement. Another prodigy would surely benefit them, improving their already considerable power and prestige.

The news spread to the rest of Konoha. They started whispering in awe, anticipating a new ninja, one of S-rank caliber.

But Mikoto knew better. She saw how Itachi's fingers trembled as they cleaned his kunai, how his face fell each time he hit the mark, and how lost he seemed when he read about yet another technique designed to hurt or kill.

Every time she noticed, she couldn't help but think of what could have been instead. His quick mind would have served him well as a politician or merchant. His keen eyes and natural dexterity might have led him to a career as an artist. Konoha didn't need another politician or merchant or artist, though. No, Konoha needed ninja. Shinobi. Soldiers.

With steel in her heart, a smile painted on her face, and silk draped over it all, Uchiha Mikoto vowed that she would find a way to make her son happy, no matter what her clan and Konoha wanted.

* * *

At the age of twenty-seven, Uchiha Mikoto watched Konoha burn, and with it, Kushina. Mikoto mourned her friend. She missed Kushina's exuberant grins, her half-crazy, half-brilliant plans, her tireless energy, her presence whenever she was needed. Without Kushina, Mikoto felt empty.

She didn't feel quite as sad about the destruction of Konoha, however.

Two days later, when Itachi and Sasuke were sleeping and Fugaku was on patrol, she awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. It started with a burning sensation in her eyes, one she attributed to suppressed tears. It grew quickly until it felt like her eyeballs were melting, blazing with heat and pain. At the end of it all, she blinked the tears away from her still-burning eyes and stared at her reflection in horror. Where tomoe had once existed, lazy swirls of black now danced through the blood-red iris.

With steel clenching her heart, a smile nowhere on her face, and silk pooled on the ground, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to avenge the death of her friend and the dreams of her eldest son.

On that day, Uchiha Mikoto began her spiral into insanity.

* * *

At the age of thirty, Uchiha Mikoto watched as her plan, half-brilliant and half-insane, came to fruition. It had been so easy, so wonderfully, captivatingly easy, to nurture the seeds of unease in the clan into beautiful vines of rebellion. It had been so easy, so wonderfully, laughingly easy to nudge the caged monsters of distrust in the village, to enrage them into suspicion and anger.

In Mikoto's mind, it was the perfect plan. To kill two birds with one stone, to pit the clan and village against one another. The clan that discarded her dreams, ignored her eldest son's, and disregarded her youngest son's, the village that cared only for power and saw people as weapons.

With steel as her heart, a crazed smile on her face, and silk twisting in a manic whirlwind, Uchiha Mikoto vowed she would see the Uchiha Clan and Konoha fall.

She would only see one fall.

* * *

At the age of thirty-three, Uchiha Mikoto started to go blind. Not blind from the Mangekyo Sharingan- she had only used it once, and that was just to see what it could do. Apparently, it amplified her genjutsu, allowing her to force it over anyone for three days in a blink of a second.

Rather, she became blind to her son's loyalties. So focused on Itachi's former dreams that she never thought for a moment that Konoha had replaced his dreams. That his hopes of peace and happiness had been replaced by nightmares of blood and kunai.

She always saw that Sasuke was the center of Itachi's world, though. She had always been able to see that.

With steel as her heart, a smile gracing her face, and silk tucked neatly around her body, Uchiha Mikoto vowed to let her sons protect one another.

She was debatably successful.

* * *

At the age of thirty-five, Uchiha Mikoto allowed her son to kill her. It would have been simple strike back. All she needed to do was turn around and meet her son's eyes, blood-red with black lines dancing through them, just like hers. For while she may have been out of practice, she had experience. Genjutsu, even without the aid of the Mangekyo Sharingan, had always been her strength.

But she didn't. Instead, she remained unmovable like a statue and closed her eyes.

With steel thrust through her heart, a rueful smile playing on her face, and silk stained with blood clinging to her skin, Uchiha Mikoto vowed she would do what was best for her sons.

She succeeded. Somewhat.


End file.
